Underground Exiles

So here’s a quick comparison between Christianity and Scientology:

1. “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” - Jesus, Matthew 5.38-39
2. “An enemy… may be injured by any means or tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” - L. Ron Hubbard, Penalties for Lower Conditions, HCO PL 18 Oct 67
3. “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” - Jesus Christ, Matthew 5.37
4. “Handling truth is a touchy business … Tell an acceptable truth.” - L. Ron Hubbard, The Missing Ingredient, 13 August 1970.

Maybe it’s pointless for me to attempt a point by point comparison of the Bible with Hubbard’s blasphemous views on the subject. The shocking differences are all too obvious. It’s difficult to resist the temptation, when Scientology publications state that “you can be a Christian and a Scientologist at the same time”.

To your right is the Wittenberg Door, where Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses. This series of blogs is written in the same spirit, and to promote the scholarly study of the beliefs and practices of Dianetics and Scientology. The “Church” of Scientology is less than forthcoming in revealing its entire belief structure to the general public. Scientology publicly claims to be an “applied religious philosophy”, as well as being compatible with other religious belief systems. However, the private upper levels of Scientology introduce many concepts that stretch the definition of “compatible”, and L. Ron Hubbard says many uncomplimentary things about religion in general and Christianity in particular. This blog series explores the beliefs and practices of Scientology, then compares those beliefs and practices to those of Christianity.

Firstly, Scientology believes that God exists, but goes on to say “As to the form in which He exists, we do not know,”¹.

Although Scientology does not know the exact form of God (i.e., the Supreme Being), it does teach that there are “gods above other gods, and gods beyond the gods of the universes”². Scientology also states that each thetan (person) “has as far as we can see in the manufacture of energy, about the same capabilities as those which have been assigned to the Supreme being in the universe”³. All of these views should be problematic for Christians, especially when Scientology claims to be compatible with all religions. These views are certainly not compatible with Christianity.

Read more…

1. Scientology: A World Religion, p. 17: What is Scientology, p. 200 [↩]
2. Scientology 8-8008, p. 72 [↩]
3. Philadelphia Doctorate Course#9, L. Ron Hubbard [↩]

So the only real point of the picture is that I fantasize about having a library like the one you see there one day…

And I’m going to run off a whole list of links and such that are some great resources for those interested in understanding more about Scientology:

Research Materials on Scientology
(some good resources here from the Watchman Fellowship.)

Read more…

During the early 1970s the IRS “proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency’s employees.”¹

A US federal court in 1971 ruled that Hubbard’s medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could not be called a scientific treatment. The Church of Scientology responded by “going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection…counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, “franchises” became “missions”, fees became “fixed donations”, and Hubbard’s comic-book cosmology became “sacred scriptures.” ²

After years of running the Scientology organization from aboard his flagship, the Apollo, in 1975 Hubbard bought the Fort Harrison Hotel and a former bank building in downtown Clearwater, Florida under the name United Churches of Florida, to hide Scientologys connection. He moved his crew to Clearwater, establishing the Flagship Land Base, a.k.a. “Flag.”

While the Church of Scientology continued to expand, its private intelligence agency known as the Guardian’s Office (GO) ran cloak-and-dagger operations against the mayor of Clearwater, various governmental agencies and anyone else perceived as in their way.

Read more…

1. Richard Behar. “Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power,” TIME MAGAZINE, May 6, 1991. http://tinyurl.com/28nox [↩]
2. ((Ibid. [↩]

Hubbard became interested in a type of lie detector called the “electropsychometer” that he believed would yield better results in auditing. He obtained a franchise for this device, which he renamed the Hubbard Electrometer, or E-meter. He began calling patients “pre-clears” and “within six weeks had created a new subject apparently out of thin air.”¹

Hubbard called his new subject Scientology and in introducing it, he claimed to have discovered the human soul. Whereas Dianetics had addressed the body, Scientology involved freeing souls (which Hubbard called “thetans”) from supposed entrapment in the physical or material world and restoring their alleged supernatural powers.

Hubbard established a headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, awarded himself the degree of D.Scn. (Doctor of Scientology) and in May 1952 incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International under the personal control of himself and his third wife, Mary Sue. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association continued its opposition to Dianetics, as well as its new baby, Scientology.

In 1953 Hubbard regained control of Dianetics after a protracted legal battle and incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science and Church of Spiritual Engineering. In 1954 he incorporated the Church of Scientology of California, which became the mother church. In 1956 the church was granted US federal tax-exempt status.

In 1957, passing himself off as a nuclear physicist, Hubbard gave a series of lectures in London on “nuclear radiation and health,” promoting a vitamin compound which he claimed cured both “radiation sickness” and cancer. Also that year the CIA began a file on him.

Read more…

1. Jon Atack. “The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard,” Chapter 10. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/245dd [↩]